2013 Baseball Thread...

shemps#1 · **Reply #75 on:** September 11, 2013, 11:04:43 PM

In regards to the Yankees making the playoffs; as a Red Sox fan first and foremost and NYY hater second of course it would be awesome if the rest of the team joined Jeter in watching the postseason from the comfort of their homes, but it seems like the one team in the AL now that is making any sort of sustained push at the moment is Boston (and maybe KC, we'll have to see how they do against Detroit) No one else can get a sustainable hot streak going and with Tampa falling not only have the Yankees a legit chance to sneak in but so do Baltimore, Kansas City and Cleveland. I may have a bias towards their manager, but personally I hope Cleveland gets in, if not them than the Royals.

metaldams · **Reply #76 on:** September 11, 2013, 11:26:17 PM

Quote from: shemps#1 on September 11, 2013, 11:04:43 PM

In regards to the Yankees making the playoffs; as a Red Sox fan first and foremost and NYY hater second of course it would be awesome if the rest of the team joined Jeter in watching the postseason from the comfort of their homes, but it seems like the one team in the AL now that is making any sort of sustained push at the moment is Boston (and maybe KC, we'll have to see how they do against Detroit) No one else can get a sustainable hot streak going and with Tampa falling not only have the Yankees a legit chance to sneak in but so do Baltimore, Kansas City and Cleveland. I may have a bias towards their manager, but personally I hope Cleveland gets in, if not them than the Royals.

I'm completely rooting for Cleveland in this wild card thing....Mike Aviles and Matt Albers no doubt.

. Seriously, those guys bring up memories of bad teams, but yeah, I'd love to face Tito in the ALCS.

Boston has already won more games this September than they did the past two Septembers, and it's only the 11th.

metaldams · **Reply #77 on:** September 11, 2013, 11:38:04 PM

Oh, and a thing of beauty...Boston, barring a collapse that will make 2011 and 1978 look puny, will clinch the division while I'm on a two week vacation from work. Talk about ecstasy.

shemps#1 · **Reply #78 on:** September 14, 2013, 04:55:44 PM

Watching Lester's light's out performance right now. If the Sox can pull off the sweep tomorrow the Skanks will officially be eliminated from the division race.

metaldams · **Reply #79 on:** September 15, 2013, 10:47:14 PM

The 2013 Yankee chase for the division is brought to you by the letter....

shemps#1 · **Reply #80 on:** September 20, 2013, 12:12:43 AM

...and of as of right now the 2013 Red Sox chase for the division is brought to you by the number...

Shemp_Diesel · **Reply #81 on:** September 20, 2013, 12:23:39 PM

Congrats to all the Red Sox fans. Before the season started, it seemed like everyone (including myself) was picking the Red Sox to battle w/ the Yanks and Blue Jays for last place & now look at them. About to clinch a division & possibly having home field throughout the playoffs.

shemps#1 · **Reply #82 on:** September 20, 2013, 09:45:14 PM

We Own The East!

metaldams · **Reply #83 on:** September 20, 2013, 10:13:34 PM

Quote from: shemps#1 on September 20, 2013, 09:45:14 PM

We Own The East!

Yes! The Red Sox have won the division. So nice to see them pull away from the other teams for once instead of some other team pulling off a September comeback. Still have to clinch home field advantage, so a memo to John Farrell, because I know he's reading this

- for these next two games, no Tazawa. The man can't pitch against Toronto. The Yanks are still alive, but the magic number is getting slimmer by the day and a lot of teams are ahead of them, so a Yankee collapse and clinching the best record would make this the perfect regular season. After the garbage of the past two teams, that's awesome.

metaldams · **Reply #84 on:** September 20, 2013, 10:16:00 PM

Quote from: Shemp_Diesel on September 20, 2013, 12:23:39 PM

Congrats to all the Red Sox fans. Before the season started, it seemed like everyone (including myself) was picking the Red Sox to battle w/ the Yanks and Blue Jays for last place & now look at them. About to clinch a division & possibly having home field throughout the playoffs.

Thanks, but I seem to remember all the professional experts saying Toronto would win the division. How did that turn out?

metaldams · **Reply #85 on:** September 20, 2013, 10:18:37 PM

....and Cleveland pulls ahead of Texas. Wow! Go Tito.

JazzBill · **Reply #86 on:** September 21, 2013, 07:49:54 PM

Quote from: shemps#1 on September 20, 2013, 09:45:14 PM

We Own The East!

How many changes did Boston make since last year? Was it basically just the manager, or a lot more?

metaldams · **Reply #87 on:** September 21, 2013, 08:04:31 PM

Quote from: JazzBill on September 21, 2013, 07:49:54 PM

How many changes did Boston make since last year? Was it basically just the manager, or a lot more?

Added Shane Victorino, Mike Napoli, Johnny Gomes, Mike Carp, Stephen Drew, Ryan Dempster, Koji Uehara, David Ross, and Jake Peavy and got rid of Josh Beckett, Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez and Nick Punto in the Dodgers trade last year, which is how Boston freed up the salary to get all those guys. Add in a couple of kids from the farm, and I'd say things worked out.

They did manage to hold onto some key pieces. In addition to Pedroia and Ortiz as well as Lester pitching much better, they also held onto Jenny Dell for their broadcasting team.

JazzBill · **Reply #88 on:** September 21, 2013, 08:19:00 PM

Quote from: metaldams on September 21, 2013, 08:04:31 PM

They did manage to hold onto some key pieces. In addition to Pedroia and Ortiz as well as Lester pitching much better, they also held onto Jenny Dell for their broadcasting team.

Wow, Jenny sure has a nice set of ............ eyes. But why did you crop yourself out of the picture?

metaldams · **Reply #89 on:** September 21, 2013, 08:50:57 PM

Quote from: JazzBill on September 21, 2013, 08:19:00 PM

Wow, Jenny sure has a nice set of ............ eyes. But why did you crop yourself out of the picture?

That picture was taken with some of her girlfriends. The pictures of her and I are in the family photo albums, and we're still trying to find the best shot to send to our relatives for the holidays.

But a serious question, as I can't remember if this has been discussed before. I know you're a White Sox fan, so speaking of announcers, what's your opinion of Hawk Harrelson? I used to not be able to stand him, but now I view him as highly entertaining. I guess it helps if I go in knowing what to expect.

JazzBill · **Reply #90 on:** September 21, 2013, 09:19:56 PM

Quote from: metaldams on September 21, 2013, 08:50:57 PM

I know you're a White Sox fan, so speaking of announcers, what's your opinion of Hawk Harrelson? I used to not be able to stand him, but now I view him as highly entertaining. I guess it helps if I go in knowing what to expect.

I really haven't cared for him too much in the past, he was too much of a homer. But this year he seems to have gotten a little harder on the team. And they sure have deserved it, even he got fed up with the crap he was looking at on the field. So I gained a liitle respect for him this year. I stopped watching baseball a couple of months ago because of the bad Chicago teams but will start tuning in again when the playoffs start. At least I had the Blackhawks to follow while the Chicago baseball teams we stinking the town up, so that helped. And football has started out very interesting. Of coarse I'm a Bears fan but I'm interested to see what the Patriots do this year. Brady is getting older and the team seems to have a few cracks in it.

shemps#1 · **Reply #91 on:** September 22, 2013, 02:21:02 AM

I'll field the football part since I know that's not your thing, Doug. Our biggest issue is the receiving corps, specifically how green it is. We lost a lot through free agency/retirement/asshole murderers and are not left with a whole lot. There are no concerns about Brady and his age thus far, he still looks like Tom Terrific but there is only so much one man can do. Luckily Gronk is coming back and that should be a huge help, and we are still talking about a 2-0 team here.

As far as Harrelson goes, yeah he was horrendous. Every team's broadcasters are homers but he took it to YES-like extremes (and the YES crew needs their vocal chords removed they are so bad). While we are on the subject of baseball broadcasters Doug, what are your thoughts on Dennis Eckersley? I think he's done a splendid job taking over for Rem-Dawg on short notice (what a tragedy there, and he has handled it so well I couldn't imagine how he does it). I know I'm a biased Masshole but NESN and the Sox have a knack for finding good folks to call their games.

shemps#1 · **Reply #92 on:** September 22, 2013, 02:28:33 AM

I'll just add, that even though I am Red Sox fan and love the NESN crew the best in baseball is Vin Scully when he calls Dodgers games by himself.

metaldams · **Reply #93 on:** September 22, 2013, 07:19:59 AM

My take on Hawk Harrelson is that he's an Ed Wood movie. He's awful in the traditional sense, and he is a huge homer, I agree with both of you. The thing is the guy takes it to such an extreme that I find it entertaining in a camp value sense. I love the way the guy tries to will home run balls out of the ball park. "Git outta thar, git, git, YEAH!"

As far as Boston announcers, the issue with Remy's son is the biggest tragedy this season for the Red Sox, and I was obviously bummed when I heard about it. Remy and Orsillo are great, always finding the right balance of being informative and adding humor, and they usually have the good sense to save the humor during a blowout. As far as Eck goes, I agree, he is fantastic, so if Remy doesn't comeback, Eck is a more than worthy replacement. I'm also not saying this because I'm a Sox fan, but between Hazel Mae, Heidi Watney, and Jenny Dell, their sideline female reporters are better looking than the average teams. I remember Heidi talking about her time in San Francisco and saying she doesn't understand Barry Bonds bad reputation, he was always so nice to her. Geez, I wonder why?

As fas as Vin Scully, that guy is incredible. He was announcing games back in the Cap Anson days, he's been around forever. But yeah, nobody calls a game like him, and it will be a sad day for baseball when he goes.

Lefty · **Reply #94 on:** September 22, 2013, 10:15:27 AM

As this is the Three Stooges website, I will keep things on topic. Here in the Philly area, the TV commentators definitely qualify as the Three Stooges -- Tom "T-Mac" McCarthy, Chris "Wheels" Wheeler, and Gary "Sarge" Matthews. They are male yentas, never shutting up for even 5 seconds, always acting as corporate shills for the higher-up Three Stooges of Dave ".300 Monty" Montgomery, Bill "Carnival Barker" Giles, and Ruin Tomorrow Jr. Okay, we'll give Sarge a wee bit of credit when he mentions that the free-swinging Phillies' batters (all of them) should learn to take some pitches and to try to hit the ball the other way with two strikes on them.

As punishment for both cities, let's trade the Phillies' TV crew for the Yankees' TV crew for one season.

metaldams · **Reply #95 on:** September 22, 2013, 04:19:21 PM

What a shitty way for Andy Pettite to go out at Yankee stadium. Lose a 2 - 1 ball game where a reliever allows your inherited go ahead run to score. He got a great ovation, though, but Pettite and Mo (who did have a great final appearance), playing their final game at Yankee Stadium depresses me. I cheered against those guys for years, and with Posada also gone and Jeter on his last leg, cheering against the Yanks will have a different feel. Thanks for the memories.

Still glad they're probably not making the playoffs. I ain't going 100 percent soft, now.

shemps#1 · **Reply #96 on:** September 22, 2013, 07:11:23 PM

I'm not as congratulatory towards Pettite as you are Doug. Not because of the PEDs (he was one of few who manned up and admitted his mistake) but because I think he's slightly overrated. By that I mean he was never an elite pitcher during his time and was boosted by a lot of loaded Yankees (and Astros) teams and there seemed to always be 5-10 or more pitchers that were better than him at any given time during his career. I feel he is definitely not a HOF player, where as Rivera is a no-question first ballot shoo-in and any baseball writer with a vote who doesn't vote him in is an idiot (as much as I hate to say it). Pedro should get into the HOF, not Pettite.

metaldams · **Reply #97 on:** September 22, 2013, 07:42:19 PM

Quote from: shemps#1 on September 22, 2013, 07:11:23 PM

I'm not as congratulatory towards Pettite as you are Doug. Not because of the PEDs (he was one of few who manned up and admitted his mistake) but because I think he's slightly overrated. By that I mean he was never an elite pitcher during his time and was boosted by a lot of loaded Yankees (and Astros) teams and there seemed to always be 5-10 or more pitchers that were better than him at any given time during his career. I feel he is definitely not a HOF player, where as Rivera is a no-question first ballot shoo-in and any baseball writer with a vote who doesn't vote him in is an idiot (as much as I hate to say it). Pedro should get into the HOF, not Pettite.

Pettite's a borderline hall of famer (and the borderline because of his postseason record and longevity only), though not quite in, but if Yankee fans can view Tim Wakefield as a long time respected rival, then Red Sox fans can view Andy Pettite as one. Probably not a hall of famer, but a good career nonetheless.

As far as Pedro, would you believe I know somebody who feels Pedro is not a first ballot hall of famer? In his prime, Pedro was the best pitcher I've ever seen.

shemps#1 · **Reply #98 on:** September 22, 2013, 07:57:27 PM

Good, but not great. I think the comparison to Wakefield is spot on. As for Pedro not being a first ballot hall of famer, that's ridiculous. Pedro absolutely was the best pitcher in all of MLB for quite a stretch and is very much like Sandy Koufax career wise.

shemps#1 · **Reply #99 on:** September 23, 2013, 07:48:40 AM

Speaking of Hall of Famers: from the "what the hell took so long" department, the legendary Red Sox LF Carl Yastrzemski was finally honored with a statue at Fenway. One of my earliest memories was watching my father watch Yaz's final game, seeing him round Fenway Park and say farewell to the fans one last time.